5 INTRODUCTION AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Alertamerica, the Report on Citizen Security in the Americas 2011 which the reader has in his/her hands, synthesizes the information found at the Organization of American States Observatory on Citizen Security. It contains official information publically released by OAS Member States, either directly to a range of different instruments belonging to our Organization or to other multilateral organizations. The information is organized into 122 different indicators which reflect all areas related to the social phenomena of crime and violence, as well as other areas which the States have developed in order to control and restrict them. Taken as a whole it constitutes the broadest repertoire of official information concerning these issues in the Hemisphere. Why are only official sources used? This Report contains authoritative and objective data, endorsed by the States of the Americas, and intends not only to inform the general public about issues which have become the principal cause for concern for in excess of 900 million people living between Alaska and the Tierra del Fuego, but also may serve as a space for reflection and debate about the issues, as well as the development of short, medium and long term policies to improve security and forge a peaceful, democratic and secure reality for our citizens. Many indicators contained herein are incomplete, with gaps in both the regularity of information provided as well as in the countries providing information. This is part of the reality, however unsatisfactory, of the official information regarding crime and violence in our continent. For this reason Alertamerica recommends that Member States continue their efforts in this regard. Only through freely available information can public policies be debated, for right or for wrong, to confront the enormous challenges that insecurity presents which, to a greater or lesser degree, affects the entirety of our continent. In developing the first edition of the Report on Citizen Security in the Americas 2011, we have enjoyed the support of a wide range of different organizations, entities and collaborators, from all OAS Member States, without whom this task would have been impossible. First of all, we would like to recognize the contribute made by the Government of Canada through their Anti-Crime Capacity Building Program (ACCBP) and the Government of Spain, via the Spanish Agency of International Cooperation for Development (AECID). Both institutions have shown their constant interest in supporting the collection, analysis and dissemination of statistical information on citizen security in the Americas. We also recognize the support obtained from all OAS Member States governments, which were the principal source for all of the information provided. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) with its Survey on Crime Trends and Operations of Criminal Justice Systems (UN-CTS) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) through its Regional Public Good Projects and the Regional System of Standardized Citizen Security and Violence Prevention Indicators have been key partners in the development of instruments to collect official information on criminality and violence in the region. Other entities which assisted the OAS General Secretariat in the collection and analysis of official data on citizen Security in the Western Hemisphere include the following institutions belonging to the Inter-American System: the Justice Studies Center of the Americas (JSCA), the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), the Inter-American Commission of Women (CIM), the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD), the Inter-American Children s Institute (IIN) and the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO).

10 EL SISTEMA NACIONAL DE SEGURIDAD, UNA REALIDAD SOCIAL Álvaro Briones y Julio Rosenblatt QUIÉN SE PREOCUPA DE NUESTRA SEGURIDAD? La respuesta a esta interrogante no es sencilla. Es verdad que en todos los ordenamientos jurídicos contemporáneos el Estado es el depositario exclusivo de la responsabilidad por la seguridad de las personas, sin embargo sería erróneo afirmar que, en nuestros días, los Estados, las instituciones y los agentes estatales son los únicos actores del proceso que conduce a la condición de seguridad de quienes habitan (de forma permanente o transitoria) en el territorio de un país. Es imposible negar, por ejemplo, la influencia que en la mayoría sino es que en la totalidad- de los países de las Américas, tienen organizaciones de la sociedad civil que hacen seguimiento de las políticas públicas o proponen, y en muchos casos ejecutan, sus propios proyectos de prevención ante situaciones de delito o violencia. Las comunidades organizadas hacen lo mismo y el sector empresarial suele ser igualmente protagonista de este tipo de iniciativas. La seguridad privada, a su vez, está jugando un papel más que significativo en la prevención y, en algunos casos, el control del delito en la totalidad de estos países. Por otra parte las entidades estatales que intervienen en este proceso exceden con mucho a aquellas que se han preocupado tradicionalmente del control o la sanción de los actos punibles (la policía, los tribunales) puesto que también cumplen un papel muy importante las instituciones dedicadas a la educación, a la salud, a la urbanización y a otras áreas en las que pueden actuar como eficaces agentes de prevención. En suma, son muchos los actores y muchas las funciones, todas orientadas hacia un mismo objetivo: la seguridad de quienes habitan en un determinado territorio nacional. Este último atributo, la orientación hacia un objetivo común, otorga racionalidad a la relación que se establece entre todos estos actores e imprime al conjunto las características de un sistema 1. Para que el sistema asocia- 1 Recordemos al efecto que la primera acepción de sistema para la Real Academia Española es Conjunto de reglas o principios sobre una materia racionalmente enlazados entre sí ; y la segunda, Conjunto de cosas que relacionadas entre sí ordenadamente contribuyen a determinado objeto. Los principales atributos de un sistema, por consiguiente, dicen relación con el enlazamiento racional de las partes o elementos que lo componen y el hecho que ese ordenamiento racional esté orientado a un THE NATIONAL SECURITY SYSTEM, A SOCIAL REALITY Álvaro Briones y Julio Rosenblatt WHO TAKES CARE OF OUR SECURITY? The answer to this question is not simple. Although it is true that in all modern legal systems the state is the sole repository of the responsibility for the security of its people, it would be wrong to say that nowadays states, institutions and state agents are the only actors in the process that lead to safe conditions for those who live (whether permanently or temporarily) in the territory of a country. For example, in the majority, if not the entirety of the countries in the Americas, it is impossible to deny the influence of civil society organizations that monitor and execute public policies, or in many cases propose their own projects to prevent crime or violence. Organized communities do the same and the business sector may also be the leaders of such initiatives. Across the region, private security plays a more significant role in preventing and in some cases, controlling crime. Moreover, the state agencies involved in this process far exceed those that traditionally have been concerned with the control or punishment of acts (police, courts), as these institutions also play a very important role, dedicating themselves to education, health, urbanization and other areas and may act as an effective preventative agent. In addition, there are many actors and many functions, all geared towards the same goal: the safety of those living in a particular country. This last attribute, the orientation towards a common goal, imparts a notion of rationality in the relationship established between these actors and provides all the features of a system. 1 In order for the system which is constituted by security actors from a specific country, to operate according to its objective, said system should func- 1 The first definition of system, according to the Spanish Royal Academy Dictionary (Real Academia Española) is a collection of rules or principles about a subject which are rationally related between them ; the second, a collection of interrelated, ordered things which contributed to determined object. The principles attributed to this system, therefore, are related to the rational connection between the parts or elements that compose it and the fact that this rational order is orientated to a determined object 10 Alertamerica.org: The OAS Observatory on Citizen Security Report on Citizen Security in the Americas 2011

11 do a los actores de la seguridad de un determinado país sea consistente con su objetivo, debe funcionar de modo tal que las relaciones entre ellos, en pos de ese objetivo común, doten al conjunto de un valor agregado que no tendría la operación de todos ellos actuando por separado. Por la misma razón debe aceptarse, en consecuencia, que la alteración de las capacidades de uno de ellos va a afectar inevitablemente no sólo su relación con los demás sino también la calidad del sistema en su conjunto. Adicionalmente debe agregarse que las condiciones anteriores serán realistas si y sólo si los actores que se relacionan constituyen la totalidad de los actores que efectivamente operan con relación a la seguridad en un determinado territorio nacional y si las operaciones que ellos realizan cubren la totalidad de las posibles acciones que se pueden realizar en el marco del ordenamiento jurídico y normativo que rige ese territorio nacional- para alcanzar el objetivo de la seguridad; en otras palabras, si los actores y sus acciones cubren integralmente el fenómeno de la inseguridad. Sobre esas bases el sistema que conforman los actores asociados a la seguridad de las personas en un determinado territorio nacional puede ser denominado Sistema Nacional de Seguridad (SNS) y definido como el conjunto de instituciones estatales y actores sociales y políticos de un país, enlazados entre sí con el objetivo común de contribuir al logro de la seguridad de sus habitantes frente a las amenazas y desafíos derivados de la violencia y el delito, de forma que la suma de sus relaciones es superior al simple agregado de las partes y que un cambio en uno de ellos puede llegar a afectar a todos los restantes y a la unidad que ellos, combinados, constituyen. Cierto es que tal Sistema, tal como lo hemos definido aquí, no tiene expresión jurídica, actualmente, casi en ningún país, aunque no se puede negar la realidad de su existencia social en todos los países de las Américas pues es efectivo que en la realidad social de todos estos países existen múltiples actores preocupados de la seguridad de las personas y es innegable que ellos, de una manera u otra, se relacionan entre sí para lograr ese objetivo. Hemos dicho que lo que dota de coherencia a este Sistema es su funcionalidad, esto es que el conjunto de sus partes integradas esté eficazmente adecuado a los fines de la seguridad. Cuáles son las funciones cuya adecuación al objetivo de la seguridad de los habitantes de un territorio nacional deben ser tomadas en cuenta? Una mirada convencional a los temas contemporáneos vinculados con la seguridad de las personas nos permite una primera identificación de esas funciones y de los actores institucionales, políticos o sociales que se preocupan de ellas. objeto determinado. tion in such a way so that relationships between the actors emphasize the need to act in tandem, ensuring added-value. By the same token it should therefore be accepted that altering the capabilities of one of the actors would inevitably affect not only their relationships with others but would also have an impact upon the quality of the entire system. Additionally, conditions will only be realistic if the actors involved represent the totality of the actors who in fact operate in the relevant field in a given country and whether the operations they perform cover all possible actions within the legal and regulatory framework governing the national territory to reach the goal of security. In other words, the question becomes whether the actors and their actions functioning together cover the phenomenon of insecurity in an integrated fashion. On this basis the system that comprises the actors associated with the security of persons in a given country can be called a National Security System (SNS) and defined as the set of state institutions and social and political actors in a country, interconnected through the common goal of contributing to the safety of its inhabitants against the threats and challenges of violence and crime, in such a way that the sum of its relationships is more than simple summation of its parts and that a change in one of them might affect each of the other parts and their combined form. It is true that such a system, as defined here, presently has no legal term in almost any country, although one cannot deny the reality of its social existence in the countries of the Americas because it is true that in the social context of each of these countries many actors are concerned about the security of their people and it is undeniable that they, in one way or another are functioning inter-connectedly to achieve that goal. We stated previously that what gives coherence to this system is its functionality, and that its integrated parts are effective and appropriate for the purpose of security. However, what are the functions which should be taken into account that ensure the security of a territory s inhabitants? A conventional view of contemporary issues related to the security allows us to identify these functions and the institutional, political or social actors in charge of them. At the most general level, the definition of what should be protected and what should be permitted and not permitted in order to provide this protection, Alertamerica.org: El Observatorio de Seguridad Ciudadana de la OEA Informe sobre Seguridad Ciudadana en las Américas

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